Technology in the gaming industry continues to evolve. Gambling machines that include a computer processor, digital video display and related computer peripheral devices are now the norm in place of older mechanically driven reel displays. One reason for increased popularity of these new digital gaming machines is the nearly endless variety of games that can be created and installed. The new digital format on these processor-driven machines has opened the door for designers to create games that were not previously possible.
For many gaming establishments and casinos, the ability to store and re-display historical instances in game play is an important feature of the new digital machines. Game history re-creation, also referred to as video ‘recapture’ or video re-display at a later time than initial display, has many uses. One use assists in settling disputes concerning the results of game play. A dispute may occur, for instance, when a player believes the gaming machine did not properly credit an award for a game outcome. Other uses include overcoming a malfunction in the gaming machine and overcoming a power outage that causes the gaming machine to reinitialize. Historical playback often requires screening and approval by a gaming regulatory body for a jurisdiction, which complicates implementation of historical game re-display.
Video is frequently used to reconcile a dispute. On games such as video poker or video slots for example, a visual display of game history informs all parties as to what actually happened. The video is often saved and recalled one frame at a time. Due to memory constraints, only a subset of game history frames are played backed. This may include video display of game sequence events leading to the instance at dispute. For example, for a video poker game, visual display of historical information might include a video presentation of initial cards dealt to a player (one frame), a video presentation of cards drawn (a second frame), and a video presentation of a final hand (a third frame). Additional frames may be needed for additional stages, such as more rounds of cards being drawn. Re-calling video frames in this manner requires each frame in the sequence to be stored in memory. Each frame occupies significant memory.
Many games and gaming machines now offer frequent and small wins to increase player participation. Frequent wins and storing multiple video frames for each small win multiply to excessive memory demands for historical game re-creation.
In addition, gaming systems are offering enhanced graphics and higher resolution displays. Many new games offer stream-able media. Other games use 3-D rendering where the game scenes are rather complex and unrelated in time. The added resolution, stream-able media and 3-D effects further increase memory burden on historical game re-creation.
In view of the above, it is desirable to provide new forms of historical game re-creation.